Antonella Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian

Who was Antonella Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian?

Antonella Kerr, Marchioness of Lothian, OBE, DSG was a journalist. She founded the annual Women of The Year Lunches at the Savoy Hotel in 1955 and was the mother of Conservative politician Michael Ancram.

Known as "Tony Lothian", she was born in Rome as Antonella Reuss Newland. She was the only child of Major-General Sir Foster Reuss Newland and his wife, Donna Nennella Salazar. Her parents had married in 1918, but were divorced in 1928, after her mother, the daughter of an Italian lieutenant-general, Conte Michele Salazar, left her 66-year-old father for a 27-year-old army officer, William Carr. Her step father later rose to become a Brigadier.

Tony married Peter Kerr, 12th Marquess of Lothian, a distant relative, at the Brompton Oratory on 30 April 1943. He was then serving in the Scots Guards. The couple spent most of their married life at Monteviot House and its surrounding 18,000-acre estate near Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. They also owned Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire. They later retired to Ferniehirst Castle, near Jedburgh, after passing the other houses to their sons.